I understand it's hard to break attachments to stuff you've always known and been with but I don't get why dudes can be so stupid to not separate once they transcend that existence...
I have a theory that can't be easily proven nor disproven but I'm confident it falls in one of two categories based on what I've seen in the real world:
1. Dudes who were really living like that are so addicted to the high of that life that you truly are a career criminal, you are afraid of change and resist anything that doesn't bring that same high and energy that lifestyle gave you, even if the transition provides safety and comfortability and financial stability otherwise. Because what those guys are really chasing is that feeling that can't be replicated in other facets of life...
These dudes are dangerous to themselves as much as anyone else because they ignore all the exits and warning signs, the transition lifestyles provide a false sense of coverage and invincibility. You think, "I always been able to do what I want, I'll definitely be able to do it with a legit lifestyle fronting me"...
These dudes take for granted the numerous opportunities they have to exit the interstate, take for granted the fortune they found in not being eliminated earlier, take for granted the new lifestyle they were granted, etc. They are career criminals who don't really want to do anything besides that street lifestyle and have a warped sense of reality...
2. The second kind of guy is the category most of these entertainers fall under, and it's gonna hurt feelings of dudes on here who think all these rappers are from the soil actual gangsters: this kind of guy was never in the streets on more than a surface level, if that, and the opportunity that arises from the fortune of celebrity allows you to be the factor you actually weren't before you had that fortune...
Think Suge Knight if you need an older example, Tekashi if you need a newer example....and think these two are the only nikkas like this and alota these artists aren't in this same vein, brehs...
This kind of guy now has all the resources, meaning money and access, to call all the plays he needs to validate the image of a "street nikka". These are artificial street dudes who pointedly craft actions and decisions to come across as, and become, "street nikkas"...
These guys dangerous too but probably more dangerous to others because they reach a place where they can deceive others into acting at their command. They ignore all the warning exits too, though...
........
Furthermore, both these kinds of guys exist way below the entertainment level. Guys who achieve credibility and success in their career field of choice---->restaurants, retail, education, entrepreneurship (owning their own lawn care companies or barber shops or clothing brand, etc), salesmen, you name it--->...these dudes then go and get chained out and deck themselves in designer and head towards where their money and "look" can buy them into whatever illegal lane they want to enter, because outside the money typically overrides most things, if you have the money to spend you'll eventually find a willing seller...
Or the legitimate street dude who tries his hand at something else and finds success in it, one if the many career fields out there, and can't resist the pull of the streets because you become a legend in two games kinda guy, you don't see that your success in another lane is your springboard to leave the streets behind...
These kinds of dudes exist at the Regular Joe level, they definitely exist at the rap and entertainment level and it's not terribly hard to spot if you listen to guys talk and pick up certain personality quirks...
I'll say this, the word been publicly out on Thugga for many years that he was cut like that so I think he fits the description of Guy 1. And it's a shame because he's had chances, many years, to distance himself, he got on his "biggest boss" shyt and it's gonna cost him his life. These other dudes (Gunna, Lucci, Baby) I know less of but I'm positive they fall into one of these two categories...
Also, alota people spending time saying this is a witch hunt are misplacing your anger. It's not a witch hunt when there's a paper trail of violence, and the reality is those with this mindset only care because they like the rappers in question---->this is how street factors who aren't celebrity rappers are hunted and prosecuted every day.
At some point we, I'm meaning us as consumers of the music and as black people in general, have to be willing to draw a line in what we find acceptable content because most of our kids grow up reciting this stuff without responsibility. I guarantee you this female DA likes at least some hip hop but she, and those in concert with her, ate drawing a line between the music and what they know guys are doing beyond the music. If we aren't supporting that black woman in that but are supporting these black men what are we really saying?
Personally speaking you don't wish death or imprisonment on anyone but I also believe in atonement, accountability, and the responsibility these guys have as public figures. And because I've been on the other side of this coin too it's hard to feel sorry for them. Good luck to em but everything you put in the atmosphere eventually finds its way back to you, one way or the other!
